Okinawan name
Okinawan family names represent the distinct historical and cultural background of the islands which now comprise Okinawa Prefecture in Japan.
Okinawan names underwent great changes after the Ryūkyū Kingdom fell under the Satsuma Domain's control.
While it was overshadowed by other name components, even adult male members of the pechin class used warabi-naa at home and when referring to their friends.
For example, Tukū (徳) was a name for commoners, Umi-tukū (思徳) for samurai, and Umi-tuku-gani (思徳金) for aristocrats.
Even in the Old Ryukyu era, social development led Okinawans to acquire names other than warabi-naa for disambiguation.
Because the vast majority of the Pechin families lacked domains to rule, they inherited fixed kamei.
After the invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom by Japan's Satsuma Domain in 1609, the Japanese-style use of Chinese characters (kanji) was adopted.
The Keichō Land Surveys of 1609–1611 probably conventionalized to some degree the choice of kanji for place names, and thus surnames based on them.
In 1625 the Satsuma Domain instituted a ban on the use of Japanese-looking family names (大和めきたる名字の禁止, Yamato-mekitaru myōji no kinshi).
At some point in history, commoners in the capital region, Shuri and Naha, started to assume kamei.
[4] Commoners in rural areas unofficially used names for households, which were also called Yaa-n-naa (屋の名).
[4] Male members of the Pechin class adopted nanui (nanori/nanui, 名乗), or Japanese-style personal names, when they reached adulthood.
In domestic documents, a Pechin was usually addressed by the combination of a kamei and a rank (e.g. Kyan Peekumi (喜屋武親雲上)).
It is only a convention of historiography that people of the Ryūkyū Kingdom are referred to by the combination of a kamei and a nanui, e.g. Tamagusuku Chōkun (玉城朝薫).
However, while tsūji was usually assumed only by the successor of a household, the first son in most cases, each nanui-gashira was shared by all the male member of a lineage.
Kara-naa appeared neither officially nor privately in domestic affairs, but were used for diplomatic correspondence with Chinese dynasties.
[4] Names for Okinawan officials were recorded in early diplomatic documents written in Classical Chinese.
Similarly, go-ratsu 呉剌 and tatsu-ro-ka-ne 達魯加禰 derived from warabi-naa Guraa (五良) and Taru-gani (樽金) respectively.
Some families from which diplomats came for generations began to succeed the first character of their ancestors' transcribed names as shii.
For instance, descendants of Mafutu-gani, who appeared as ma-botsu-to (麻勃都) in diplomatic records, adopted the shii Ma (麻) after him.
[3] The development of Okinawan naming conventions was closely related with that of munchū (monchū/munchū, 門中), or patrilineages.
[4] Many early kings, up to Shō Hō, had divine names (神号) in addition to warabi-naa.
This statement is highly questionable because no such record is found in Chinese documents and Shō Hashi used the shii even earlier.
[5] In 1692, the branch families of the royal house were given the shii Shō (向, note the different kanji) and the nanui-gashira Chō (朝) no matter how distant from the king.
The Ryūkyū Kingdom was forced to become a Japanese feudal domain by the Meiji government in 1872, and it was formally annexed by Japan in 1879.
Ryūkyūans were then entered into the Japanese family register (koseki) system and, as in Japan, surnames were extended to all citizens, no longer being the province of the aristocratic classes alone.
It is reported that, during the American military occupation after World War II, many managed to change their surname relatively easily.
